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Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology
Aimed at advanced undergraduates, this self-contained textbook covers the key ideas of special and general relativity together with their applications. The textbook introduces students to basic geometric concepts, such as metrics, connections and curvature, before examining general relativity in more detail. It shows the observational evidence supporting the theory, and the description general relativity provides of black holes and cosmological space-times. The textbook is in full colour, with numerous worked examples and exercises with solutions. Key points and equations are highlighted for easy identification, and each chapter ends with a summary list of important concepts and results. This textbook provides the essential background for an up-to-date discussion of modern observational cosmology. Each chapter builds on the previous one as concepts are developed, making it ideal for self-study. Accompanying resources to this textbook are available
312 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2010
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September 25, 2018
I feel the book is a good introduction to the theories of relativity; I especially like the end of chapter summaries that double up as excellent reference sources for when you can't quite remember an equation you need later in the book. On the downside, in my opinion the number of questions in the book (especially at chapters 3, 4 and 5) are not plentiful enough to make me truly feel as though I have a grasp on the basic mathematical manipulations of geodesics and tensors, my attempts at the exercises often went something like this:
"Okay, I think I have answered that question, I'll go check what the solution at the back of the book says."
"Oh I got it wrong, but from this solution I can see I just forgot important thing X; I'll bear that in mind for next time"
But then there never is a next time, because that was the only question on basic manipulation of the newly introduced mathematical construct in the book.
To be fair to the book and author, it is supposed to be read in conjunction with taking a course at the Open University. As such, the extra practice would have been provided by completion of the OU's TMAs and iCMAs, were I taking said course.
Ultimately, my recommendation for future editions would be to add a small compendium of questions as a final chapter 9; that are optional, but provide students with the opportunity for extra practice in using and manipulating the relevant mathematical constructs such as tensors and geodesics.
"Okay, I think I have answered that question, I'll go check what the solution at the back of the book says."
"Oh I got it wrong, but from this solution I can see I just forgot important thing X; I'll bear that in mind for next time"
But then there never is a next time, because that was the only question on basic manipulation of the newly introduced mathematical construct in the book.
To be fair to the book and author, it is supposed to be read in conjunction with taking a course at the Open University. As such, the extra practice would have been provided by completion of the OU's TMAs and iCMAs, were I taking said course.
Ultimately, my recommendation for future editions would be to add a small compendium of questions as a final chapter 9; that are optional, but provide students with the opportunity for extra practice in using and manipulating the relevant mathematical constructs such as tensors and geodesics.
Displaying 1 of 1 review